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TV: LIN buys ten stations, including Birmingham's CBS 42

N

Nate Wesley

Hat tip to the National TV board.

LIN TV will soon own three Alabama-licensed TV stations: WALA "Fox 10", CW affiliate WFNA 55, and WIAT "CBS 42".
 
I can't say that's a good thing for WIAT… Down here in Darwin's Waiting Room the perennial "we're being removed from your cable/satellite lineup because they won't pay us more" stations are WALA/WFNA. LIN seems to be pretty aggressive on retrans agreements.
 
New Vision? Wait, when did Media General sell WIAT? I thought Media General was the only company to own affiliates in all Alabama markets. Isn't Media General headquartered in Montgomery and owned by the Alabama teachers union, AEA?
 
No, Media General is not headquartered in Montgomery, or even in Alabama, nor do they operate stations in all of the Alabama markets. They bought NBC 13 several years ago after operating CBS 42 for years before. I know Media General also operates WRBL in Columbus, GA and WKRG in Mobile and several daily and weekly papers including the Dothan Eagle.

Raycom Media is headquartered in Montgomery and operates WSFA Montgomery, WBRC Birmingham, WAFF Huntsville, WTVM Columbus, GA, and WDFX Dothan. It does not technically operate a station in the Mobile / Pensacola market, but does operate WLOX Biloxi, an ABC affiliate which most of the cable homes in west Mobile especially receive.
 
Raycom....
WLOX is only on Mediacom in Mobile county, right? How's that WLOX CBS 13.2 thing working out so far? 4:3, 480i OTA? That's what their sister station WALB ABC 10.2 has been broadcasting OTA for the past year or two. If they aren't feeding full HD by fiber to Dish and DirecTV it would suck to live in one of those markets.
 
poledo said:
Raycom....
WLOX is only on Mediacom in Mobile county, right? How's that WLOX CBS 13.2 thing working out so far? 4:3, 480i OTA? That's what their sister station WALB ABC 10.2 has been broadcasting OTA for the past year or two. If they aren't feeding full HD by fiber to Dish and DirecTV it would suck to live in one of those markets.
Click to expand...

WLOX is carrying CBS on 13.2 in SD OTA, but it's available in HD on CableOne and DirecTV. WXXV is slated to carry NBC on 25.2 starting in June or July. That will finish killing off the significantly viewed stations (WWL, WPMI, WKRG) in that area.
 
Zach said:
poledo said:
Raycom....
WLOX is only on Mediacom in Mobile county, right? How's that WLOX CBS 13.2 thing working out so far? 4:3, 480i OTA? That's what their sister station WALB ABC 10.2 has been broadcasting OTA for the past year or two. If they aren't feeding full HD by fiber to Dish and DirecTV it would suck to live in one of those markets.
Click to expand...

WLOX is carrying CBS on 13.2 in SD OTA, but it's available in HD on CableOne and DirecTV. WXXV is slated to carry NBC on 25.2 starting in June or July. That will finish killing off the significantly viewed stations (WWL, WPMI, WKRG) in that area.
Click to expand...

I wonder if this results in WLOX providing Cable and Directv with a better quality HD signal than the Mobile and New Orleans CBS affiliates? I've noticed that College Football games on WKRG and WEAR have a better picture OTA than from the UVerse HD feed. I assume they are sending UVerse the same bit-rate they broadcast OTA and UVerse downgrades it some more. If WLOX is sending Cable and Directv the full HD bit-rate signal via fiber while broadcasting whatever they are capable of OTA, then I would assume they should get a better picture from Cable or DirecTV than we get from WKRG or WEAR. Make sense? Insomnia writing problems tonight.

OTA viewers can still pick up NOLA or Mobile affiliates in HD... so no harm done.
 
Zach said:
WLOX is carrying CBS on 13.2 in SD OTA, but it's available in HD on CableOne and DirecTV. WXXV is slated to carry NBC on 25.2 starting in June or July. That will finish killing off the significantly viewed stations (WWL, WPMI, WKRG) in that area.
Click to expand...

Reallly? I have DirecTV and don't see WLOX CBS on there. What channel number. As for WXXV carrying NBC on 25.2, it's starting in July according to here

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/482187-Exclusive_NBC_Signs_Affiliate_For_Biloxi.php
 
jc said:
Zach said:
WLOX is carrying CBS on 13.2 in SD OTA, but it's available in HD on CableOne and DirecTV. WXXV is slated to carry NBC on 25.2 starting in June or July. That will finish killing off the significantly viewed stations (WWL, WPMI, WKRG) in that area.
Click to expand...

Reallly? I have DirecTV and don't see WLOX CBS on there. What channel number. As for WXXV carrying NBC on 25.2, it's starting in July according to here

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/482187-Exclusive_NBC_Signs_Affiliate_For_Biloxi.php
Click to expand...

I thought I read it over on the Biloxi board of the AVS Forum but upon rechecking, it appears that one of the carriers was promising WLOX's CBS feed but hasn't delivered yet. Do you get a CBS on 390? It's been so long since I've had DirecTV that I don't remember if that's the NYC feed or not. One of the posters was complaining about losing WWL, then getting the NYC feed, then getting WWL again. Dunno if that's DirecTV or Dish he's referring to. ???
 
Zach said:
jc said:
Zach said:
WLOX is carrying CBS on 13.2 in SD OTA, but it's available in HD on CableOne and DirecTV. WXXV is slated to carry NBC on 25.2 starting in June or July. That will finish killing off the significantly viewed stations (WWL, WPMI, WKRG) in that area.
Click to expand...

Reallly? I have DirecTV and don't see WLOX CBS on there. What channel number. As for WXXV carrying NBC on 25.2, it's starting in July according to here

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/482187-Exclusive_NBC_Signs_Affiliate_For_Biloxi.php
Click to expand...

I thought I read it over on the Biloxi board of the AVS Forum but upon rechecking, it appears that one of the carriers was promising WLOX's CBS feed but hasn't delivered yet. Do you get a CBS on 390? It's been so long since I've had DirecTV that I don't remember if that's the NYC feed or not. One of the posters was complaining about losing WWL, then getting the NYC feed, then getting WWL again. Dunno if that's DirecTV or Dish he's referring to. ???
Click to expand...

It's Directv that he's refering to. Dish never took WWL off Directv did. With WLOX giving cable CBS in HD, is it impossible for them to have it in HD on both OTA and Cable/Satellite or is it an either/or type of situation? It's really pissing me off not getting WLOX-CBS in HD OTA!
 
It's been set up that way for over a year on WLOX's sister station WALB. WALB 10.1 is 16:9 HD NBC while 10.2 is 4:3 SD ABC. I expect it'll be that way in Biloxi unless some genius come up with a new compression logarithm. I'm just curious if cable and sat are going to get a HD feed by other than over the air means for their customers?
 
poledo said:
It's been set up that way for over a year on WLOX's sister station WALB. WALB 10.1 is 16:9 HD NBC while 10.2 is 4:3 SD ABC. I expect it'll be that way in Biloxi unless some genius come up with a new compression logarithm. I'm just curious if cable and sat are going to get a HD feed by other than over the air means for their customers?
Click to expand...

Well, as I mentioned but partially screwed up, Cable One is getting an HD feed already, so, it's there for the taking for other cablecos. And some stations do run two HD channels at once, but I've never seen it and understand both channels looks very, very subpar.
 
poledo said:
It's been set up that way for over a year on WLOX's sister station WALB. WALB 10.1 is 16:9 HD NBC while 10.2 is 4:3 SD ABC. I expect it'll be that way in Biloxi unless some genius come up with a new compression logarithm. I'm just curious if cable and sat are going to get a HD feed by other than over the air means for their customers?
Click to expand...

WLOX should've swapped networks on subchannels for OTA viewers. IMHO there is more worthy programs in HD on CBS, especially sports than there is on ABC.
 
jerseyfla said:
poledo said:
It's been set up that way for over a year on WLOX's sister station WALB. WALB 10.1 is 16:9 HD NBC while 10.2 is 4:3 SD ABC. I expect it'll be that way in Biloxi unless some genius come up with a new compression logarithm. I'm just curious if cable and sat are going to get a HD feed by other than over the air means for their customers?
Click to expand...

WLOX should've swapped networks on subchannels for OTA viewers. IMHO there is more worthy programs in HD on CBS, especially sports than there is on ABC.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure WLOX has a sound affiliation agreement with ABC. Even if it were expiring tomorrow, it wouldn't make much sense to shake up branding to confuse viewers anymore than Raycom has to: "Wait, so CBS is now on [CableOne] channel 11?"
 
Nate, your link says WLOX ABC SD is on channel 11. No listing for WLOX CBS SD, unless I'm blind... and I could be.

But, Cable One is listing WLOX ABC HD on 455, WLOX Bounce (HD?) on 456 and WLOX CBS HD on 457. I wonder how much longer WWL and WKRG have left on Cable One? Surely they would love to have that bandwidth back for other uses and surely WLOX wants all eyes on it's eye for the advertising bucks.

Once WLOX-CBS is added to Dish and Directv, Sat. is required by the FCC to drop WWL and WKRG, right? ... but Cable One has the option of keeping WWL and/or WKRG if their subscribers demand it?
 
Instead of broadcasting CBS SD 4:3 480i OTA on WLOX's sub channel why don't they broadcast it in 16:9 HD with a low bit rate (obviously the highest bit rate they are capable of squeezing in)? Seems to make more sense to me. Am I crazy?
 
poledo said:
Instead of broadcasting CBS SD 4:3 480i OTA on WLOX's sub channel why don't they broadcast it in 16:9 HD with a low bit rate (obviously the highest bit rate they are capable of squeezing in)? Seems to make more sense to me. Am I crazy?
Click to expand...

No poledo, not at all! In fact I would just be happy with it being in 16:9 and 480p HD rather than 4:3 480i and SD. I think Raycom is just focusing too much on cable coverage in Biloxi and Albany. They need to realize more and more people are "cutting the cord" and getting rid of cable/satellite.
 
And another thing, WLOX has signed contracts with two of the big four networks, ABC and CBS, they have no business wasting bandwidth on Bounce TV. If they want to broadcast Bounce to Biloxi they need to figure out how to get a LP or Class A license for a second station. Wasn't there an unused full power allocation for the Biloxi market before the DTV switch? I'm thinking it might have been for channel 40.
 
poledo said:
Instead of broadcasting CBS SD 4:3 480i OTA on WLOX's sub channel why don't they broadcast it in 16:9 HD with a low bit rate (obviously the highest bit rate they are capable of squeezing in)? Seems to make more sense to me. Am I crazy?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Two HD channels together would look like dog squeeze. It's bad enough watching WKRG and they only have two SD subchannels (radar and MeTV). Every episode of The Rockford Files I watch that has the slightest bit of action causes the picture to break up into squares of blurriness… CBS HD doesn't fare much better IMHO.

Also, Bounce is a Raycom thing. It's probably being forced on them like it is all the other Raycom stations.
 
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